Hello, friends!

This is my first post in over a year, and I am hoping to get back into the swing of things.  I decided to provide a little life update and also inform you of my hopes for this blog (hip hip hooray!).

Recent pic with some of my favorites! (Yes, I still look the same, haha.)

Keeping it simple, I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about a year ago.  I had accepted my current job as one of the Campus Ministers at Christ the King Parish and Catholic Center.  My official and snazzy title, as given to me by Fr. Andrew (our wonderful pastor), is Intellectual Formator.  I was blessed last year to teach a class at CTK for any women interested in learning more about the Vocation of Women.  I am still working on writing a curriculum on exactly that topic, but I was given a classroom at CTK to pilot the beginnings of such a class.  (After teaching high school girls for two years, I felt there was a lack in the resources and materials provided to them.  That could take up a whole post, so I’ll elaborate on that dream soon.)  Basically, young people are hungry for the truth, and they are so courageous in pursuing it!

During the first week of classes, on August 22 (the Feast of the Queenship of Our Lady), I asked Jesus to take down the walls I’d built up around my heart that were keeping me “safe” but not necessary anymore with the ways He had grown and matured me.  Within an hour after praying that very specific prayer, I was HAVING A BLAST, playing an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee in the rain on the Parade Grounds at LSU.  I was the only woman on the field at the time, and so my competitive heart was exploding with JOY!!!

…and then lots of little factors lined up as I made a certain play, and my right knee went in a direction it shouldn’t go in as I heard a very loud POP!  I felt it and knew right away that I had just torn my ACL.  ::womp womp::

I tore my left ACL throwing the javelin in high school, and so I knew what had just happened but didn’t want to believe it.  Naturally, I kept playing (or really chasing people around in the background, doing tests on my knee and realizing I couldn’t cut or stop and had no stability in my knee whatsoever).  Someone eventually noticed I’d stopped talking smack and playing hard, and they asked me what happened.  I walked to get ice, and the rest is history.  (Of sorts.  This recovery has been much slower than the other one, unfortunately.  Perhaps I’ll write a post on that one day, too, because I actually did research and wrote a paper in high school on how women are 5x-8x more likely to tear their ACLs than men.  Crazy, but true and super fascinating.)

Anyway, so that + starting a new job + moving + finding a place to live + all the other things we do in life were too much for me to write much on a blog.

But!  As this year begins, I am realizing more and more how much I would love to share with people the things that I have been blessed to learn through the years.  Not everyone will care to read about the things that fascinate me…the many thoughts that constantly occupy my mind.  …but I do believe that there are certain topics that many of you would like to understand more.  My passions are women’s health, the writings of Pope St. John Paul II, Catholic Feminism, traveling, being outside, etc.  If anything that I write interests you, I hope it can be a gift for you to have and carry in your own heart and mind as you live life.

Besides my current job, I still give talks about many different things (most recently in tandem with Dr. Susan Caldwell about the gift and beauty of a woman’s body–these are specifically geared towards high-school aged women and their mothers.  The talk is called “Growing Up Gracefully,” and you can find more information here.).  Sr. Tracey Dugas, FSP, and I are continuing to record our radio show “Daughter, Arise” with Catholic Community Radio.  (They turn them into podcasts, so you can follow us online even if you can’t listen in your car.  You can find us on I-Tunes, and I’ve also linked the shows to my website here, under “Podcasts.”)  Primarily, I am focusing on my dissertation (more about that soon).  I completed my first two years of doctoral studies (where I traveled back and forth to Rome for classes and exams), and I am in the beginning stages of my dissertation.  (Pray for me please!  …like for real.)

So now this blog’s purpose surfaces…

I really really really want to share with you the knowledge I have.  People come up to me constantly, asking me really great and deep questions.  People ask me to give presentations.  People just want to learn and spread truth, and it’s so beautiful!  Since I am only one person and really really really need to focus on writing a dissertation, I am not available for more presentations and conversations, no matter how wonderful they may be.  (Yes, the power of “no” for the bigger “yes–difficult but super healthy.)

Anyway, so here’s my point!  I am trying (really hard) to streamline my time so that I can offer my gifts to people in the avenues available to me, and I believe this blog can be one of those avenues in which to pour my (little) efforts. 

I am not going to be able to reply to every question or comment.  In fact, I will not be able to reply to most.  But even if my gift is small, I want to offer it to you.  Also, since my dissertation has to be 250-400 pages, it is really important for me to get back into the habit of writing.

I like to think of myself as a recovering perfectionist.  Keeping that in mind, I am not going to shoot for perfect posts or even be able to answer every question related to each topic.  I will offer what I can, though, and may it help whoever needs it most.

I love you all.  Pretty please share this blog with anyone who may be interested in these topics.  You can subscribe over on the right sidebar, and let’s just see where the Holy Spirit leads this thing, eh?

Happy Sunday, friends.  You are so loved.